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1958-60 - Tsybin PKA Lapotok

After launching the first satellite to the near-Earth orbit, the question arose of human flight into the space. How to start it was clear - a rocket. And in the matter of returning from outer space variants were possible: uncontrolled descent in a capsule along a ballistic trajectory or controlled in a winged vehicle.

At the request of Korolev, for the R-7 missile, the OKB-256 aviation OK P.Tsybina developing draft design (approved May 17, 1959) of the planing spacecraft (PKA - planerism kosmicheskii apparat). The PKA had a trapezoidal wing and a normal tail fin. The structure was formed into the aerodynamic "shadow" of the fuselage wing. With a total weight of 4.7 tons. and landing - 2,6 tons, the device had a length of 9.4 m. wingspan 5,5 m.height of the plumage 4m. and the width of the fuselage is 3 m. The crew was 1 person.

The estimated duration of flight life reached 27 hours. The project envisaged an orbit with a height of 300 km with the help of the "Vostok" booster. After the orbital flight the PKA would returns to Earth, planing in dense layers of the atmosphere. At the beginning descent device, using the lifting force of the bearing body, braked to speed 500-600 m/s and from a height of 20km glides with the help of a divergent wing, folded "behind the back" for protection against aerodynamic heating. After the tests performed in TsAGI revealed that the heat loads significantly exceed limits, emerging technical problems and successful tests of "Vostok" spacecraft determined the termination of work on the PKA.

As is well known, Sergei Pavlovich for the first spacecraft "Vostok" has chosen a scheme that is simple, reliable and requiring the least time and money for experimental testing. In addition, the campaign launched in those years against military aircraft in favor of rockets affected many aviation OKBs. The Tsybin bureau was closed down shortly after the draft project was completed. Tsybin and his staff transferred to the Myasishchev bureau in October 1959 (which was working on the VKA-23 winged spacecraft project). The Myasishchev bureau was closed and staff transferred to Filial 1 of Chelomei's OKB-52 bureau in 1960. Tsybin's work on the PKA was passed to the Mikoyan bureau and formed the starting point for the design of the Spiral spaceplane.